Planning a Custom Primary Suite in Boca Raton: The Bed, the Windows and the Media Wall
By Frank Chacin, Creative Director at SoBe Furniture
Many primary bedrooms are furnished in three separate purchases. The bed comes from a showroom, the window treatments come from someone else after the move, and the television goes on whichever wall has an outlet. Each decision makes sense alone. Together they produce a headboard that covers the bottom of a window, a shade cord nobody can reach, a screen that reflects the sunrise and three wood tones that almost match.
When the bed, the windows and the media wall are all custom, each is built to measurements, so each can be designed around the other two before anything is made. Here are the decisions that link them.
Decide Which Wall Does What
In many Boca Raton homes, one bedroom wall is largely glass, one holds the entry door and one opens to the bath or closet. That often leaves a single solid wall, and the first decision is whether it gets the bed or the screen.
Before looking at samples, sketch the room and write two numbers beside every window: the sill height (floor to the bottom of the glass) and the head height (floor to the top of the frame). Those numbers decide more about the bed and the media wall than the square footage does.
- Windows on a side wall. The easiest plan: the treatment works unobstructed and the screen sees the glass at an angle.
- Windows facing the bed. A custom wall unit can be drawn around a window, with the television set to one side.
- Bed against the window wall. Common in condos, and it changes what the treatment has to do.
When the Bed and the Window Share a Wall
A bed in front of a window
If the headboard stops below the sill, leave a few inches between them so a shade can drop fully. If it rises past the sill, the window becomes a backdrop, and the treatment has to work without anyone reaching behind the bed. Choose that only if the room has another window or an outside door that opens, so the way out in an emergency is never behind the headboard. A cord or wand back there is out of reach; a motorized shade is not. Many designers then run drapery wall to wall on a ceiling track behind the bed, so the headboard sits against a continuous field of fabric.
Headboard height is yours to set. SoBe's custom beds are hand-made in the USA and virtually any aspect is customizable, so the headboard can stop below the sill or rise to a deliberate line, such as the top of the window frame. The Grand Haven XL family bed has a 95-inch headboard, which rises above the window frames in many rooms. Decide that on paper, not on delivery day.
A window beside the bed
Here the conflict is the drapery stack. Open panels gather at the sides of the window, and lined drapery needs real width: plan for around a third of the window width in total, more with heavy blackout linings. If the window is close to the headboard wall, that stack lands where the nightstand and lamp want to be. Either extend the track past the far side and stack everything away from the bed, or use a Roman shade, which folds into itself and needs no side clearance.
Settle the Bed Width First
An XL family bed changes a plan built around a king: SoBe's come in 120-inch and 152-inch widths, the width of two queen or two king mattresses side by side, in four signature designs plus fully custom.
How wide a wall each size needs is covered in our XL family bed size guide. In a suite planned as one, the width also moves everything beside the bed: compared with a king, each nightstand and lamp shifts outward by half the difference in width, often into the path of a drapery stack on a side window. Choose the width before the track and the stack direction are decided.
| Bed | Sleeping width | Each nightstand moves out vs. a king, roughly |
|---|---|---|
| King | 76 in | Starting point |
| XL family bed, two queens | 120 in | 22 in |
| XL family bed, two kings | 152 in | 38 in |
Width changes the view of the media wall as well, so check the screen from both outer pillows. Then check the depth: an 80-inch queen or king mattress, plus the headboard, plus about 36 inches of clear floor at the foot if a wall unit with drawers faces the bed, plus the unit itself. In a bedroom a shallower unit is usually right, because every inch it gives back goes to the walkway.
Blackout for an East-Facing Bedroom
Orientation decides the treatment before style does. An east-facing bedroom in Boca Raton takes direct sun as soon as it clears the horizon, and in summer that is early. Real darkness usually takes two layers:
- A blackout shade on the glass, mounted outside the frame so it overlaps the opening by a couple of inches each side. Mounted inside the opening, a shade needs running clearance at both edges, and that clearance is exactly where the morning light gets in.
- Drapery on a ceiling track in front of it, running well past the window on both sides. It closes the side gaps and stops the light that escapes over a wall-mounted rod.
Leave a few inches between the layers so the drapery clears the shade's headrail. If the shades are motorized, ask for every blackout shade in the room to answer one button on a remote that lives on the nightstand. Whether the motors run on battery packs or house power is settled at the measurement visit; house power means wiring, so hold that visit before the painter finishes. See every option on our custom window treatments page, and our guide to solar shades, drapery and shutters for Florida sun.
The Media Wall Facing the Bed
In bed you watch sitting up against the headboard, so your eyes are higher than on a sofa. Have someone mark your eye height on the opposite wall while you sit up, and center the screen at or slightly below the mark. A low platform bed brings the mark down and a thick mattress pushes it up, which is why the bed is chosen before the wall unit is drawn. Center the screen on the bed, not the wall; if the bed is off-center, a wider shelf column on one side absorbs the difference.
Light the objects, not the sleeper
Judge each light from the pillows. If you can see the source, whether an LED strip on a shelf edge or its reflection in a glossy panel, it will glare; a fixture hidden in the top of a niche usually will not. Keep the LEDs warm and plan a dimmer with your electrician. Glare on the screen itself comes from the windows, and the fix belongs there.
The Granada stone and walnut niche wall unit, pictured below, shows both cases. Its niche lights are the hidden kind, while the band of light washing the stone above the screen faces the bed directly, so ask for that band on its own dimmer. Because it does not need to fill the wall, it can sit between a door and a window. Each design on our custom wall units page is built to the measured wall and quoted after a consultation.
One Palette Across Wood, Fabric and Metal
Custom pieces ordered months apart rarely line up on their own, so lay out samples for all three together before ordering any.
- Wood. Let one species lead. With a walnut wall unit, the bed frame and nightstands are walnut or a deliberate contrast such as white lacquer, never a third brown that almost matches.
- Fabric. Let texture and pattern take turns: a textured headboard suits plain drapery, and patterned drapery needs a quiet headboard.
- Metal. One hardware finish for the suite. Brushed brass pulls on the wall unit mean brass lamp bases and brass in the closet.
The closet is often part of the same suite, and custom closet hardware comes in brushed brass, polished nickel, matte black and satin chrome, so the metal can be decided once for both rooms. The planning numbers for that room are in our guide to walk-in closet dimensions.
The Order of Work
- Choose finishes at the showroom. Wood, stone, headboard fabric, drapery fabric and hardware side by side, under real light. Settle the bed early: its height sets the screen height and its width decides where the nightstands and drapery stacks land.
- Measure together. Custom window treatments and wall units are both measured in your home before anything is made. Ask for one visit that covers the windows and the media wall, with the bed's footprint and headboard height marked, so the track, the screen center and the headboard top are planned against the same heights.
- Approve the wall-unit drawing and the quotes. Hold the drawing against your window and headboard numbers: headboard line, sill line, screen center and niche lighting should make sense on the same wall.
- Install in order. Wiring first, then the wall unit and window hardware, then the bed, since installers need ladders at the walls and a wide bed gets in the way.
White-glove delivery and installation covers Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Plan the Suite at the Showroom
Bring a photo of each wall, the window sizes with sill and head heights, the ceiling height and your television size, and we can lay headboard fabric, drapery and wood samples side by side. SoBe Furniture has furnished South Florida homes since 2007, furnishing and designing thousands of homes. The showroom is at 6599 N Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL 33487, in the Boca Raton Shopping Center on US-1 north of Yamato Road, minutes from the I-95 Yamato Road exit. Hours are Monday to Saturday 10 AM to 7 PM and Sunday 11 AM to 6 PM. Call (561) 221-6111, or send your window sizes and room measurements ahead of your visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How high should a TV be mounted in a bedroom?
Usually higher than in a living room, because you watch sitting up in bed. Mark your eye height on the opposite wall while sitting up, and center the screen at or just below it. Bed and mattress height change the answer, so choose the bed first.
Can you put a bed in front of a window?
Yes, if the headboard and treatment are planned together. Keep the headboard a few inches below the sill, or, if the room has another window or a door to the outside that opens, let it rise in front of the window and use a motorized shade, since a cord behind a headboard cannot be reached. Ceiling-track drapery across the whole wall makes it look intentional.
Should I choose the bed or the window treatments first?
The bed, or at least its width and headboard height. The headboard decides whether the bed can sit in front of a window and what the treatment behind it has to do, and the width decides whether a nightstand lands in the path of a drapery stack.
Where should the TV go in a bedroom with large windows?
On a wall that sees the windows from the side, if the room allows it. A window behind the bed reflects in the screen, and a window next to the screen makes the picture look dark against bright glass. If the only solid wall has one of those problems, solve it at the window with a shade you can close from the nightstand.
Should the headboard fabric match the curtains?
Usually not. Matching fabric on the headboard and the window tends to merge into one block; repeat a color or a texture instead. Compare the samples in your bedroom's own light, because the same fabric reads warmer or cooler depending on which way the window faces.